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Tuesday 20 November 2007

Scandal of The Day: personal data on 25 mln people got missing in the UK

"Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 have gone missing. The Child Benefit data on them includes name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25 million people. " [discs containing such sensitive data got sent out (and lost!) from a governmental agency to the National Audit Office via internal post system, without even recorded or special delivery - unbelievable!] More...

This is just incredible. And it is happening in the UK, with supposedly strict and at times too many data protection and privacy regulations. This is one of the very rare instances that I have to agree with the Conservatives: "a catastrophic failure" from the side of government. Government official's response? - in a typical British way: "I apologise..." - "I am sorry..." You may do whatever you want in the UK, you then just need to say that magical word "Sorry". I was joking the other day with a friend that here you may kill a person and then say "Oh, I am so sorry..." Come on, with all those resources and facilities... And they want to introduce ID cards with even more centralised personal info! Bigger "Scandal of The Day"-s ahead... (if it can get any bigger)

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